Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole

I was up at five thirty this morning doing a tutorial for Apple Week.
Note to self: No more tutorials before seven a.m.!
Just wait til you see it, i didn’t realize how asleep I was until after!

I’ve been working on Apple Week posts here and there, making sure I will have enough done to post a new one each day. I may run it simultaneously on my other blog as well but I haven’t decided if I am that insane or not yet :).

Today, I am bringing you a yummmmmy dish. In the south, we have two primary hash brown casseroles. They are both delicious and I will eventually get around to posting the second. The second one has a lot of sour cream in it and is just wonderful. This is the cheesy one and it dethroned the sour creamy one as my favorite several years back. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to have hash brown casserole at Cracker Barrel, this is that style of hash brown casserole.

Round these parts, a good hash brown casserole is required food not only at family reunions but at funerals too. So you’d best keep this recipe handy “jes in case someone up ‘n dies on ya”.

What are southern style hash browns? Well, around here the package literally says “southern style”. They are hash browns that are shredded as you’ll see in pics for this tutorial. However, if you can only get the little squared ones that will be fine, too!

Chop your onion. Use one of those Santoku knives your Mama got you for Christmas last year because she was watching too much of the Food Network at the time and all the cooking show hosts were using them.
So you are now officially “in” by Food Network standards.
You also have a pretty cool set of knives from the deal.

Melt margarine and pour it into a large bowl. Add onions.

Add cream of chicken soup.

Add pepper.

Add salt.

Stirry whirry!!!

Add cheese.

Pour in hash browns.

Stir it all up again!

Until it looks like this.

Put into 9×13 pan and bake in oven at 350 for thirty minutes, or until bubbly.

OMG this is so good. I had a leftover night for dinner when I made this. I had made a double recipe of that Best Ever Beef Stew two nights before. I heated that up, made this casserole, and then made some hoe cake. I put some crock pot apple butter, grape jelly, and molasses on the table to go along with the hoe cake. My leftover night did NOT seem like a leftover night!

You got all of this additional information because M
ama says I need to start writing what we have for supper from time to time!

Combine soup, onion, melted butter, and seasonings, stir well. Stir in cheese and frozen hash browns. Place in 9x13 dish and bake at 350 for thirty minutes, or until bubbly. *This tastes just like Cracker Barrel's!

I made this tonight for a dinner along with scrambled eggs and southern biscuits and gravy. Everyone loved it. One of my co-workers said, “so is this what you eat down south?” I said “well yes, but this is only a tasty portion of all this wonders we have “down south.” LOL

My recipe calls for adding sour cream, too. And butter rather than margarine. I like to sautee the onions in the melting butter. I like sharp cheddar 🙂 These potatoes are sooooooo good.We have them at Easter with ham.

This is my absolute favorite recipe. I’ve made it several times, but using the Cracker Barrel recipe I found on KopyKat. It has the sour cream and cornflakes. All my friends and releatives enjoy it, as well. You are right; We can’t count calories when eating this one. In fact, it seems that everything I really like, the calories have to be overlooked. Why is that????

I just love this site and have read your cookbook from cover to cover. You are the best…..

This is very similar to mine, but I brown the frozen hash browns and onions in a little vegetable oil before putting the casserole together. I season that with McCormick’s seasoning salt and ground pepper while it is browning. Once that is done, stir in the cream of chicken soup and cheese (I use Colby or Colby Jack) and bake at 350 until cheese has melted through. This is a family tradition every Thanksgiving morning and Christmas morning along with my sausage braid.

I make this lots of times when I have family in..everyone likes it…I love the southern style hash browns too. they are also great for breakfast.YOU CAN ALSO TOP WITH OTHER CEREALS ON TOP IF YOU DON’T HAVE CORN FLAKES OR BREAD CRUMBS JUST BE SURE TO FINELY CRUSH THEM ..I HAVE USED CRACKERS CRUMBS TOO.JUST NOT SWEETENED CEREALS.

Hey Christie, decided to make this for my Easter dinner tomorrow. The “southern style” (said so on the bag) hash browns I picked up from my local store, Dominick’s (Safeway owned) weren’t shredded but diced small. I’m sure it will still be just as delicious but can’t figure out why those taters weren’t shredded.

I never really paid attention to the wording on the package but after I read this post I had to look and see what it said. My Kroger brand hash browns say “country style”. This made me laugh because I am from Ohio but my husband is Southern and it is a common misconception up here that all southerners are from the country! My husband grew up in the heart of Atlanta but everyone assumes he grew up in a dirt shack in the middle of a cotton field! Some stereotypes crack me up.

This is the best hasbrown casserole recipe anywhere! I found this a few months ago and every time I make them, I get rave reviews. My husband, who is not usually a big potato eater, loves them. Thanks for posting this!

I prefer the cubed hashbrowns over the shredded but have made both ways. I always use some sour cream in mine and have also used cream cheese, just good whichever way you make it. Also, like crushed cornflakes mixed with melted butter to put on top, also have used Ritz crackers or even potato chips. A good throw together casserole.

I have made this recipe for yrs, and it is always a requested recipe for family gatherings (and sometimes as a “treat”) I have made it with cream of celery, cream of potato, even with cream of mushroom soup or a combination of the above, as we always need more than one can for our large group. I also crush up potato chips for topping (doesn’t matter if a bit stale either) Love your site, Christy. Makes me homesick sometimes though 🙂

This is nowhere like Cracker Barrel, so much better. CB has cut their portions down so much you can’t even get the true taste of what is served. We topped ours with crushed unsalted saltine crackers. Baking the hashbrowns and onions some in advance is a foolproof method of getting it nice and crispy.

I went to get the ingredients for this today and found that at our store “southern style” potatoes are the little square ones, not shredded. I guess we have a different view of what is southern up here in the north (Indiana). 😉 Looking forward to having this for Easter!

My daughter is now a vegetarian and was very disappointed she was not going to be able to eat these with her Easter dinner. I subbed out the cream of chicken soup for a can of Campbell’s cream of onion and left out the additional onions. We all loved it!!